WISL Update: Stars, Hammers pull away from the pack

Saturday’s matches in the Western Indoor Soccer League served to push forward two sides as clear favorites after Tacoma scored 15 goals and Bellingham scored 12 in big wins.

The Hammers led the Fire 6-2 at the half on Saturday in Bellingham. (Bellinghammers SC Facebook)

Bellingham United-12 Wenatchee Fire-7

In Bellingham the Hammers withstood a 5-goal outburst from the Wenatchee Fire’s Adrian Espinoza to claim a 12-7 win that puts BUFC in a solid second place in the table and within reach of the Tacoma Stars. Chris Jepson led the Bellingham attack with 3 goals. Nick Cashmere and Brendan Quilici scored twice each. The Hammers got single goals from Oscar Jimenez, Kellan Brown, Gabriele Zaccagnini, Tyler Hughes and Tye Hastings.

Bellingham shot out to a 5-0 lead before the Fire could post an answer. The Espinoza show pulled the Fire to within two at 6-4 before the Hammers ran away with four straight goals to make it 10-4. The final 12-7 scoreline included Wenatchee goals from Miguel Galvan and Juan Barboza.

Bellingham United improves to 4-1-1 with 13 standing points. Wenatchee remains in third place at 2-3-1 on 7 points.

Club

Points

Wins

Losses

Ties

GF

GA

Goal + / –

TACOMA STARS

15

5

0

0

48

17

+31

BELLINGHAM UNITED

13

4

1

1

45

34

+11

WENATCHEE FIRE

7

2

3

1

40

50

-10

OLY TOWN ARTESIANS

6

2

4

0

37

53

-16

ARLINGTON AVIATORS

0

0

5

0

20

36

-16

Joey Gjertsen scores one of his four goals as the Stars ripped the Artesians in Tacoma. (Bruce Benson)

It was a close contest early on, with the clubs exchanging goals back and forth in a 2-2 standoff. When Joey Gjersten converted an Oly give-away into a goal that gave the Stars a 3-2 lead, it was lights out for the Artesians after that. It was 6-2 Stars at halftime, then 9-2 after three quarters. The rout went epic when Tacoma marched on with a 6-0 fourth quarter performance to make the 15-2 final.

Tacoma’s scoresheet has the name Joey Gjertsen listed four times. The former MLS player (San Jose Earthquakes) boosted his league total to five goals with the outburst. Fellow verteran striker Nate Ford scored a hat trick. Tacoma got a late brace from JJ Schmeck and singles from Derek Johnson, Adam West, Kyle Danielson, Cam Vickers, Vincent McCluskey and Byron Conforti.

Oly’s two goals were from Kyle Weise and Dyson Fowler.

Tacoma remains unbeaten in all matches (8-0-0) and stays on top in the WISL with a 5-0-0 record and 15 standings points. The Stars are 2 points ahead of the Hammers, but Tacoma has a match in hand.